I need a REALLY good answer to this question.

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U2democrat

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Why do people still smoke? By now the consequences are WELL known, as well as the fact that cigarettes are extremely addictive.

I'm curious because alot of my friends have started smoking since they turned 18, and I'm allergic to it and am sitting here having trouble breathing because i was around someone smoking a few hours ago.

I just don't get it. Why smoke?
 
I am one of those freaks who can actually smoke a cigarette occasionally and not get addicted. I was a social smoker in college but under no circumstances did I want to be a smoker.

Last summer I went through a crisis and one night sitting in the backyard I spontaneously bummed a cigarette from my housemate. It was the first one I'd had in many years. And for the next couple of months during this crisis, I smoked 1 or 2 American Spirit cigarettes almost everyday, usually at night. It calmed me. Sitting in the backyard late at night smoking a cigarette became one of my little daily pleasures and I'd just sit there and contemplate everything.

Being in Native country in the Southwest, and the granddaughter of a tobacco farmer in Virginia, I relate to tobacco in an earthy kind of way. I think of its long history, which includes its use for medicinal purposes, for trade, and as a cash crop. I don't think of tar, carcinogens and cancer. I think of the peace pipe and how relaxing it is, much like an after dinner drink is for some people.

The daily smoke faded away as always but today someone offered me one and I sat on the porch and enjoyed it.

So it's really fucked up that something I enjoy and that seems so innocent as I'm enjoying it kills people.
 
These are from www.thetruth.com:


About 1 out of every 5 deaths in the US can be attributed to tobacco products.

Every eight seconds, someone in the world dies due to tobacco.

In 1999, one year after agreeing to stop billboard advertising, tobacco companies increased advertising spending by 33 percent in magazines with more than 15 percent youth readership.

In 1990, 72 million bottles of a popular mineral water were voluntarily recalled because of small traces of benzene. The smoke from one pack of unfiltered cigarettes has as much benzene as 169 bottles of the contaminated water.

How do infants avoid secondhand smoke? "At some point they begin to crawl." -- Tobacco Executive 1996

In as little as 2 weeks nicotine changes the brains chemistry and addiction can begin.

In 2001, tobacco companies spent about $11 billion marketing their products. That's about $1.5 billion more than the year before.

In 1990, a tobacco company put together a plan to stop Coroners from listing tobacco as a cause of death on a death certificate.

Cigarette smoke contains 69 chemical compounds that are known cause cancer.

1 out of 3 smokers are estimated to eventually die from a tobacco-related disease.

Over 50,000 people a year die from secondhand smoke in the US alone.

Cigarette smoke contains the radioactive isotope Polonium-210.

In 1989, millions of cases of imported fruit were banned after a small amount of cyanide was found in just two grapes. There's thirty-three times more cyanide in a single cigarette than was found in those two grapes.

An internal tobacco company marketing report from 1989 said quote "We believe that most of the strong, positive images for cigarettes and smoking are created by cinema and television."

In the mid 90's, a major tobacco company planned on boosting sales of their cigarettes by targeting a new consumer market: gays and homeless people. They called their plan Project Sub-Culture Urban Marketing. Also known as Project SCUM.

Cigarettes will eventually kill a third of the people who use them.

Tobacco signage is often placed at a child's eye level.

One tobacco company developed a genetically altered tobacco with twice the addictive nicotine of regular tobacco. They code-named it "Y-1."

In 1984, one tobacco company referred to new customers as "replacement smokers."

Over 80 percent of all adult smokers started smoking before they turned 18.

Tobacco companies make $1.8 billion from under age sales.

Pee contains urea. Some tobacco companies add urea to cigarettes.

Tobacco companies make a product that kills 440,000 Americans a year.

Tobacco companies make a product that kills 1,200 Americans a day.

2,000 teens start smoking everyday.

Tobacco companies make a product that kills about 50 Americans each hour.

In the 1970s, tobacco companies started making light cigarettes by putting tiny holes in the filters to let extra air mix with the smoke. They found they could get low readings of toxic agents from FTC-type cigarette testing machines.

In 1980, a tobacco company considered looking at itself as a "drug company."

Every 8 seconds, someone in the world dies from tobacco.

The impact of nicotine is jacked up because tobacco companies add ammonia.

In the 1980s, tobacco companies started working on making fire-safe cigarettes. Ones that would be less likely to ignite furniture or clothing and cause fires. As of 2002, only one of the hundreds of U.S. cigarette brands uses fire safe technology, and cigarettes are still the number one cause of fire-related deaths.

Every year, 95 percent of people who try to stop smoking are not successful.

In the US, smoking causes about 445 new cases of lung cancer every day.

Tobacco kills more Americans than AIDS, drugs, homicides, fires, and auto accidents combined.

Cigarette smoke contains benzene, carbon monoxide, arsenic, hydrogen cyanide and polonium 210.
 
yeah i do.

if i ever were to smoke a cigarette my windpipe would close up completely and i wouldn't be able to breathe. not that i'm complaining or anything, its just as well.
 
coemgen said:


Pee contains urea. Some tobacco companies add urea to cigarettes.


Many of your moisterizers use Urea as their main active ingredient. Just look at the next eucerin bottle you happen to see.

Some of these "truths" are twisted some are exagerated, but by no means am I defending smoking.

I personally think cigarette companies got extremely greedy with additives, tabacco alone I see no problem with.
 
Why do people still smoke? Because most people are stupid. Maybe I should create a flag art of that:

EU%20Flag.gif


Yellow: smart people
Blue: everyone else

Melon
 
I know a lot of intelligent people who smoke and I have absolutely no problem with that, they have a right to do it and I do not think that it makes them lesser people.
 
U2democrat said:
cool, huh? someone's been subjected to peer pressure :wink:

I think peer pressure and trying to look cool is why people start smoking when they're young. Addiction and/or the inability to kick the habit is the reason people continue smoking when they're adults.
 
I know how hard it is to quit (my dad has been addicted since he was 16 and has already had multiple tumors removed and he's not even 50...my grandpa had FOUR massive heart attacks before he finally quit)....so my question is: why did you START smoking?

Also, what is your definition of "social" smoking. It seems some people consider social smoking pretty much everything up to the point of pack-a-day addiction. I consider social smoking more like 1-2 ciggs a week, max.
 
I smoke on rare occasions, honestly I don't even like it all that much. I only do it when I'm extremely upset about something.

I can smoke like that and not become addicted, maybe I don't have an addictive personality even though alcoholism runs in my family.

My Mother smoked from the time she was about 16. She smoked for so long when I was growing up. She quit cold turkey when our neighbor died of brain cancer and she has never smoked since then, not to my knowledge. I thought she might freak out over me smoking but she told me something to the effect that she couldn't stop me, etc. I've never smoked in front of her but I confessed to her.

I think in general people smoke and do other things like that because it is incredibly addictive and denial is an extremely powerful and persuasive force.
 
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Angela Harlem [/i][B]who wants to help me count the smarmy self righteous attitudes displayed in this thread? [/B][/QUOTE] :lol: I really put some thought into my post and tried to present an alternative viewpoint on smoking but I don't think anyone read it. People don't seem to get that judgmental attitudes are also toxic (obviously they don't kill people the way second hand smoke does but I'd rather breathe second hand smoke occasionally than be around judgemental people all the time). Anyway said:
Also, what is your definition of "social" smoking. It seems some people consider social smoking pretty much everything up to the point of pack-a-day addiction. I consider social smoking more like 1-2 ciggs a week, max.

I agree with you.
 
Sure people have a right to smoke, but shouldn't I also have the right to breathe cleaner air without the risk of having a severe allergy attack and possibly dying?

Shouldn't all people who don't want to second hand smoke have the right to breathe clean air too?
 
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Everyone around me used to smoke when I was growing up. My parents tried to quit but could never quite manage to do it.
My mother was stricken with oral cancer, partially attributed to smoking. She lost her tongue. She had no choice but to quit then cold turkey obviously. But still living alongside her and taking care of her, my father to this day still smokes. She passed away many years ago now.

And I often ask him why he doesnt quit....I think it is because he enjoys it. He enjoys the taste etc from it...that is all I can figure. Me I never smoked. But that is my preference, much as smoking is his or someone elses. THose that say well it becomes my problem aka second hand smoke, but you can say the same thing about pollusion, smog, and everything else in this world, like it or hate it it will always be around you.

anyhow just my .02
 
Hey everyone has a vice.
Some people are over weight from eating too much some drink too much alcohol and some do illegal drugs.
I try not to judge, to each their own.
 
coemgen said:
These are from www.thetruth.com:
In the mid 90's, a major tobacco company planned on boosting sales of their cigarettes by targeting a new consumer market: gays and homeless people. They called their plan Project Sub-Culture Urban Marketing. Also known as Project SCUM.
if that's true, that's incredibly offensive. :down:
foray said:
Blame it on film noir,

foray
and rock 'n' roll. :up:
 
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